The present disclosure relates generally to the field of vehicle seating. More specifically, this disclosure relates to the use of tailor welded components included in a vehicle seat.
Laser tailor welding involves forming a component from two or more materials with different properties (e.g., thickness, grades, surface finishes, platings, coatings, etc.) to form a tailor welded blank (TWB), and then performing additional operations on the blank (e.g., forming, cutting, rolling, stamping, punching, etc.) to form the finished component. This technique may also be used to form a tailor welded coil (TWC) or a tailored welded tube (TWT). Unlike traditional components formed from a single material a having a single thickness, components formed from TWBs, TWCs, and TWTs may be engineered to provide a portion of the component having a greater thickness, different grade materials and/or a different geometry where needed, and provide portions with lesser thickness, lower grade materials and/or different structures to allow for reductions in mass, size, number of components, and/or cost over traditionally formed seat components and structures.
One exemplary laser tailor welding process includes two or more rolls of sheet metal (e.g., cold rolled steel, hot rolled steel, Zinc (Zn) coated steel, stainless steel or an alloy, etc.) that are joined together. The rolls are joined together with a continuous welding operation (e.g., a laser welding operation) to create a single piece of sheet metal.
Vehicle seat structures are generally optimized by selecting the material thickness and the material grade and then designing a monolithic component having a structurally advantaged shape.